Tucked in a rural town in Illinois lies one of the quirkiest junk spots, antique finds, and hardware shops in America. Last week I had the adventure of traveling down to Olney, Illinois to visit a long time friend of Infarrantly Creative – D. Lawless Hardware. D. Lawless Hardware specializes in inexpensive knobs and pulls. Their quality is excellent and their prices are the best I have seen on knobs and pulls – which is why I constantly recommend them to you when you have furniture hardware needs.
I arrived in Olney, Illinois right around lunch time and was greeted by Derrick Lawless, son of Dave Lawless. He is the one that is responsible for handling the internet marketing side of the biz. He walked me through what seemed like a maze of collected antiques and finds throughout the years. They have a collection of milk glass, and period glass, old frames, mantels, furniture, vintage prints, and knick-knacks out the yin-yang.
I picked up a few of these old barn wood frames for a gallery wall I am currently working on.
After talking to boss man, Dave, I heard the story about how he started out making curio cabinets back in the 80s there. He would curve the glass with special machinery and sell the glass to other independent makers of furniture. Once the need for those seemed to be disappearing Dave reinvented the company and started an antique shop, scouring the United States for interesting items to sell in his store. Again the need to reinvent to provide for his family turned the company into selling a few items like lock and keys and hinges for cabinets to companies. Slowly they started adding in knobs and pulls.
Companies were asking Dave for continued printed catalogs of his hardware. Printing costs were high and the man power to produce catalogs seemed abundant, so Dave figured out how to put a few images of his items on the internet and told his clients to go look there. Little did he know that would prove to be one of the best moves for his little company.
Now DIYers like you and me, as well as large companies, order knobs and pulls from D Lawless Hardware. While he has over a football field of knobs and pulls they still operate with the same small business philosophy – where the customer is always first.
Each of the 15 or so employees I encountered greeted me with a smile and was eager to tell me about their job and the company. They truly function as a family. Seeing a peek behind the D Lawless curtain made me even more passionate to encourage you to consider them for all your hardware needs.
And if you ever find yourself in Nowhere, Illinois with a couple of hours to blow, one of the D Lawless family will welcome you with some small town love.
 Derrick, Dane and Dave Lawless
You will not be disappointed scouring D Lawless Hardware for some rare finds. And make sure you hit up the clearance room where no knob or pull is over $.75! I could have spent hours alone in that room.
However, all of you who won’t get the chance to shop at their charming storefront can bookmark them for when you need to purchase knobs.
Glass Knobs starting at $1.49! Cabinet Pull Label Holders at $.54! Bar Pulls starting at $1.99! I told you they had the best prices around…
And a few of these amazing knobs may have made their way home with me. If you follow me on Instagram you saw these gorgeous antique milk blue glass knobs in action. Stay tuned for the full reveal tomorrow.
Meanwhile stop by D Lawless Hardware and tell them IC sent you.
how fun! I had no idea all of the goodies that are there on site! wow!
ps see you tomorrow!
Awesome! Glad you enjoyed yourself! I hope some of your readers are close enough to stop by! Thanks!
oh goodness they are only an quick 45 minute trip for us! My husband has been there to pick up some knobs for me and said only good things about the store. I need to take an afternoon trip some day soon!
What an awesome trip! We’ve been ordering from D Lawless for a couple years no. You really can’t beat the prices and the quality! Definitely my favorite place for affordable knobs and pulls!
That is funny you made it to Olney! This is where I live! I drive by that place every day. Great feature of their store!
Sherry
How cool! It was a fun place to visit for sure. I am sure I would stop in waaaay too much if I lived there and have a crazy stockpile of hardware. Ha!
Hands down the best! Glad you love them too!
You totally need to. It’s a fun place to rummage around for sure.
Woohoo! You’d have a heyday in there! 😉
It was an awesome experience. Thank you so much for sharing the history with me and giving me the grand tour! 🙂
Beckie, I am so jealous. I would love to visit this place…..weekly. Thanks for the information. They have a great on-line site!
Thanks so much for the information! I live about 45 minutes from Olney and I’ve never heard of the place. Looking forward to checking it out!
How fun! Let me know what you think.
Ha! There is so much to look at in there! Thankfully for those who live far away the site is amazing too.
I LOVE that you went to see this place in person… I had no idea there even WAS a storefront…? I have SO many gorgeous hardware images pinned on my Pinterest DIY board, for future purchase if I EVER get to that point in my furniture rehabbing…. I have been waiting for summer (garage painting season here in Indy!!!) but as YOU well know our summer was a bit delayed this year… but I am so on it now!!! and I will totally be purchasing some beautiful D. Lawless hardware for the ‘jewelry’ on my furniture pieces… (I also love the you said they have “Knick-knacks out the yin-yang”!!! I am pretty sure “out the yin-yang” is a Hoosier expression, LOL I use it all the time! Now, I am curious if the knick-knacks are listed on-line? or only at the store front?
I think they do have some knick-knacky items listed online, but you should totally take a trip over there some time to get the full effect. It’s a great place to rummage around. So funny about the expression! 🙂
I love this company and I love Derrick! I’m so glad you got to check out “headquarters”. So Cool! Everyone needs to know about this company.
Couldn’t agree more, Elisha! It was definitely a cool experience.